Spinning Sebbie
This week, I managed to eke out an hour and a half to finish up what will be one skein of Sebastian’s yarn. It has little strands of blue metallic fiber which makes it sparkle (you can’t really see it in the photo, though). Tomorrow, I’ll wind it on the niddy noddy (a frame to stretch it out), then hopefully on Sunday, I’ll give it a quick wash in the sink, and let it dry. Monday, Sebbie should be a sparkly skein!
It was good to get to spin again. This skein started back in the summer, with Jim Lord and Amanda Esque washing the fleece and Jim carding it on the drum carder (he did LOTS of batts of fleece for me, all ready to spin, but I’m just now starting to get time to spin them!). I did get half of the spinning done back in August, but then got too busy to finish until now. Hopefully, there’ll be more handspun yarn production throughout the winter and into the spring!
Shots and Toenails . . .
How did you spend your Saturday night? I’ll bet it wasn’t wrestling two very annoyed (and probably terrified as well) alpacas in an attempt to cut their toenails? Well, that was a good portion of Jim’s and my evening. It was Reinhart’s and Zelda’s turns to get a pedicure. Zelda had one side done during Christmas week, but we had to give up on her then because she was so distressed, and we think she’s pregnant, so we don’t want to endanger the pregnancy by adding undue stress. Well, we had to finish tonight, and she didn’t like it any better this time! Reinhart was exciting, too – he is extremely skittish about being touched anywhere, but especially his feet (this is common in alpacas). He wimpered and squealed and screamed bloody murder! Honestly, you would have thought we were skinning him alive, not just cutting his toenails! When all was said and done, Jim, Reinhart, and I were all out of breath, and my back was dripping with stinky cud! Ah, so thankful for washing machines . . .
The other part of the evening was spent preparing and administering Ivomec, a worming shot that prevents infection from meningeal worm, which can be deadly to alpacas. They need this subdermal shot (just under the skin) every 30 days to ensure protection. Of course, this isn’t a favorite event with the herd, but tonight most of them behaved well. Although shots are not difficult per se, they are not top on my list of “fun” things to do, either. I don’t like giving the needles, or causing them pain (they do sting – I know, I’ve been stuck!). It’s also pretty challenging to get to the skin on some of the ‘pacas with really long fleece during the winter and all the way up to shearing in May. We have to part the fleece (which by now is at least a couple inches long on most of the ‘pacas, and 3 or more inches on some, like Miss Sera and the crias born in the spring). All of us are glad when shots are over for another month!
Halter Training
The holidays are over, and we are already well into January – time is flying by here at the farm! I wanted to share this short video showing the first session of Maybelline and Michaela learning to walk with a harness and lead. This actually occurred over Christmas break, when two of our CSA members, Sharon and Ricky, braved the chilly temperatures to help these young alpacas learn this important skill. It is necessary for alpacas to know how to “lead,” because it enables them to be safely moved from one place to another, and with a minimum of stress. For us, this was really brought home recently when Hurricane Irene forced us to bring in the females to an area in our house! Believe me, there’s no way we could’ve done that without them being halter-trained! These girls did really well for their first lesson. A few more “walks,” and they’ll be good-to-go anywhere! Some alpaca owners show their animals, and it is definitely a plus for an alpaca to be well-trained in the show ring.
Weaning Maybelline and Michaela
Well, they’ve enjoyed mom’s “milk bar” for 5 and a half months, so with winter coming and Andina and Tory needing to put on some pounds, the time had come for weaning our 2 older crias, Maybelline and Michaela. Thanksgiving was their last day with their moms, and on Friday, we moved them into the paddock with the gelded boys. We had hoped to integrate Lightning with those boys and give the girls a paddock to themselves, but macho man just won’t behave himself with the other boys.
It’s turning out OK, though. At first M & M jogged around the paddock a lot, looking for a way back to mom, but after a couple days they calmed down. We purposely separated them during a time when we’d be able to observe their behavior. It’s never been a problem on our farm, but we have heard of weanlings really react badly to the separation. Eventually (about 6 months from now), we’ll reunite them with Andina and Tory, and hopefully they won’t try to nurse again. Weaning is one of the less pleasant tasks we have as alpaca farmers – it’s never fun to have to see animals stressed out. Incidentally, we’ve never had the moms seem stressed. Take their newborn, and they freak out, but by the time that cria has been nursing for 5+ months, they’re probably happy to get rid of them for a while!
Chanel’s new little guy is doing well (gaining about 0.6 lb. each day). He’s so cute, chasing Allonsy around and bumping up against him . . . Chanel has to undergo one more (hopefully only one more) flushing treatment on Monday afternoon. The vet will also ultrasound her to make sure all the material is gone from her uterus.
Hope everyone has a good weekend!
Chanel and her new little boy
On Friday, Nov. 18th, Chanel delivered the eighteenth member of our herd, a lovely little gray boy in a “tuxedo” color pattern. He weighed 16 lb. 8 oz. at birth, and because it was so cold (40 degrees in the barn – brrr!), we had to blow dry him, warm him in towels, put him in a “maternity suite” with straw and a warming work lamp. We closely monitored his temp, but when it dropped in the afternoon, we put tarps around the “suite” and added a heater strapped to the wall feeder board. It worked, and his temp stabilized. Meanwhile, Chanel passed some of her afterbirth, but not all, and not all in one piece, so we had to call the vet for shots to help her with contractions. Unfortunately, that didn’t work, so (to make a long story short), our vets came out 3 times over the next 3 days to give “uterine flushes” and antibiotic treatments. Our big girl was a trooper and stood still for all the procedures (which couldn’t have been pleasant!). The last flush resulted in still more discharge, which may or may not be infection. Our vet called out to an alpaca reproduction specialist in Colorado to get advice on this rare situation. The specialist said to wait 2 weeks and monitor her temp for infection. Then she’ll need another ultrasound and flush. Hopefully, that will show her uterus is clear.
All this was going on during our Hospitality night and Holiday Photo Shoot on Saturday (about 60 people attended that fun event!). The picture of Maybelline (taken by Amanda Esque on Sunday) pretty much shows how exhausted we all were with the weekend’s events!
Also this week, Jim scored some nice brome hay that we hope will tide us over the winter!
Saturday, General Patton, Oliver, Amanda and I will be at the Holiday Hoopla at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor. Jim and Jim will be keeping the farm open to anyone who wants to visit!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
New paddock opened!
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The alpacas were excited to nibble on some fresh grass when their new paddock was opened today. Jim worked hard to finish this new area so that they could get in a little time before all the grass dies. It’s mainly a long, narrow area for the crias to run around in, and they certainly did today! Even Zelda joined in the pronking! They figured out that they can rip around the new area and then run through the gate all the way to the barn. Very, very pregnant Chanel #5 chose to take a dirt bath instead of running around (Chanel is now 3 days overdue).
We might possibly make this new paddock into a living space with a shelter at some point in the future. It would need electric, though, for a light, fan in the summer, and heated water bucket in the winter. That’s quite a project. Solar power is a possibility, but that’s something new for us. We’ll see . . . For now, it’s just a fun new area to explore!
Welcome to our farm blog!
This little blog is an informal way of sharing our day-to-day farm life with our friends and “alpaca fans.” We hope you enjoy reading about the little trials and joys of working with our alpacas and their fabulous fleece! You can subscribe to receive updates by clicking on the “Follow” button at the top of the page. Also, visit our website and follow us on Facebook (“Jersey Shore Alpacas). Thanks, and enjoy!
